10-22-2017, 08:11 AM
“We should go in and help, sir.” Priya had folded her arms and was glaring at him... well, actually, she may not have really been glaring, but these stormtrooper helmets had kind of a mean look to them, and to Kroll it always felt like he was being glared at whenever any of them faced his way. Leon stood behind her; as usual these days, that pair seemed to prefer discussing something between themselves and coming to an agreement on the matter before even proposing an idea to the others.
“Oh? It seems to me he's doing fine by himself.” Kroll tugged one of the doors open slightly and peered out. There was no sign of Hijiri, but the shooting had started up again, and many of the thugs were screaming or moaning in pain... either because he was cutting them down one by one or because the idiots were repeatedly firing upon their own crew. To begin with, as well as the shouts of rage, the insults and the screams, he'd also been able to hear a few of the wolves calling their people back, trying to get them not to rise to the bait.
Those voices had now fallen silent; the squad's resident Rabbit having apparently considered that lot to be priority targets. He wasn't just making the best of a bad situation, he must want all those goons in there with him.
“He could get shot at any time, they're shooting lasers everywhere in there! Besides, we've been at this for too long, this place may be pretty big for a casino, but it's not like it's all that far from one end to the other; the lieutenant should have reached us by now. Something must have gone wrong. The sooner we clear this place, the sooner we can go help the others.”
“Hmm...” Kroll didn't particularly want to risk the lives of his veteran stormtroopers at this point; he'd need everyone's help to make his plan a success, and they hadn't yet had enough of Hijiri and Sarah's training for him to feel confident that they could handle such a huge mob.
“You know she's right, sergeant.” Leon added, folding his arms as well. Did these two think that made them look intimidating or something?
Kroll sighed. “All in favour of helping Takanomiya?”
“Aye.” answered Priya, Leon, Brandon and Frank at once.
“... Uh, well... I guess...” Trevor added a moment later, after realising that no one else was about to object.
“Very reassuring, Dodson,” Kroll said drily, “we're all extremely impressed by your eagerness, I'm sure, but you're bad enough for friendly fire even without a cloud of smoke to help you perform even more dreadfully than normal, so why don't you just wait here for us?”
“Yes, sir!” Trevor sounded pleased with his new task, at least for a moment...
“Good luck holding them all off yourself, kid,” Frank gave the idiot a pat on the shoulder as he passed him on his way to the doors.
“Wait, what?”
Priya and Frank had entered the other room, with Leon right on their heels.
“There's a pretty good chance more of them will try and get away through here at some point, so do your best to take out as many as you can.” Kroll said, giving Trevor a bright smile.
Brandon had left as well, and now Kroll turned and strode through the slowly closing door himself.
“Huh? Wait! I changed my mind!” Trevor suddenly cried, dashing through after the others, only to shriek in terror, trip over and fall to the floor as numerous lasers and bullets were fired in his general direction.
He couldn't see a thing, but from somewhere nearby he heard Kroll's voice hissing quietly. “Nice work, imbecile, now they know we're in here and'll most likely be headed our way as we speak.”
Trevor whimpered.
“Let's find some cover. Dodson; you're forbidden from firing unless I say so, got that?”
“Y-yes, sir.” the coward moaned.
Following Kroll's lead, Trevor crawled off behind a table; the other four had spread out and gone somewhere else. The table wouldn't offer much in the way of protection against bullets and blaster-fire, but it was better than nothing, he supposed.
Kroll made a few whispered comments into his Communicator, then stood, leaning over the table and waiting. When the next gunshot occurred nearby he fired calmly, and someone screamed. Immediately, he ducked down, then spoke into the Communicator again, as more shots rang out.
Replies came from the device, then the 'sergeant' tapped Trevor on the shoulder and gestured to move on. They kept low, doing everything they could to avoid being discovered as they moved. Though their brief conversations were too quiet for him to hear much of what was being said, Trevor realised as they stopped behind a different table and Kroll popped up and took aim facing another direction, that they were organising things somehow so as to (hopefully) avoid shooting each other.
He wasn't sure how, exactly, but this squad did seem to work pretty well together. Kroll shot someone else, ducked, spoke, and they moved on again; it seemed like the plan was to keep moving in order to make sure the NSW didn't realise that their shots were those of the stormtroopers; it might come across as just a tad suspicious if someone in the same spot repeatedly kept 'accidentally' killing their gangsters. Up until this point, they had all been actively trying to avoid shooting towards the sources of the lasers and bullets, since they had clearly realised Hijiri was armed only with his sword, which meant they'd only have been killing their own allies by doing that, so as long as they never worked out which of the gunners were actually stormtroopers, the veterans could keep gunning them down with almost no risk.
Men and women continued to scream as they were slain by the Battle Rabbit somewhere in their midst, shot by the squad, and fired upon accidentally by each other as well. It couldn't last long, and so it didn't. As soon as they all realised they'd eventually lose at this rate, the mindless goons – in the absence of any competent leadership – decided that their best tactic would be to kill the 'troopers before they killed them. Unfortunately, since they didn't know where the EPD soldiers actually were, their only recourse was to shoot at anyone who fired.
Given that doing so meant having to fire their own weapon as well, which would in turn make them a target for their allies, who would then be shot by other gangsters, it didn't take them long to realise the folly of this idea. Of course, by then it was much too late.
***
“Feels good to be able to take this stupid thing off.” Hijiri remarked, tossing aside the ventilation mask and attempting to wipe as much of the soot-stained blood from his face as he could manage.
“Yeah, well, at least you had one.” Kroll coughed.
“Point taken. So, where to now, sir?” they had left the room behind them piled with corpses, only leaving after they were as certain as they could possibly be without waiting for the smoke to dissipate that there was no one left alive within. At least a few had likely escaped, but the ex-noble didn't seem concerned, so Hijiri didn't let it bother him either; those who fled would spread the word that Davion's squad held some formidable soldiers, after all, and so help get them recognised around the area... which was good, apparently.
“We have to make our way to the front entrance of this place; there's still no sign of Lieutenant Calrime. His group could be in trouble.” Priya told the Prime, who nodded.
“Any idea where that is?” the room they were in now was another hallway, but unlike the first, it was dotted with doorways all across its length... at least up until a couple dozen metres away, at which point it turned a corner, after which they could as yet tell nothing more about it.
“Not a clue.” answered Kroll. “We're just going to have to check them all. It's doubtful they got this far, given the lack of bodies and scorch-marks on the walls, but there could still be traps or enemy reinforcements behind any of these doors... not to mention valuables. Remember the plan, everyone; we need weapons, or at the very least expensive goods that can be converted into a lot of Omnilium.”
Frank – who had at some point removed his helmet, taken out his metal flask and started drinking – laughed at that. “Don't worry 'boss' none of us are gonna forget your KRAP anytime soon.”
Kroll scowled at the drunkard. The fake sergeant hadn't bothered to come up with an actual name for his plan – despite having different names for each of its component Phases – so Frank had taken it upon himself to come up with one in his stead. He eventually went with 'Kroll's Really Amazing Plan'... or KRAP, for short. Shockingly, the wannabe strategist didn't much like that name.
“Just get to work.” he snapped.
“Oh? It seems to me he's doing fine by himself.” Kroll tugged one of the doors open slightly and peered out. There was no sign of Hijiri, but the shooting had started up again, and many of the thugs were screaming or moaning in pain... either because he was cutting them down one by one or because the idiots were repeatedly firing upon their own crew. To begin with, as well as the shouts of rage, the insults and the screams, he'd also been able to hear a few of the wolves calling their people back, trying to get them not to rise to the bait.
Those voices had now fallen silent; the squad's resident Rabbit having apparently considered that lot to be priority targets. He wasn't just making the best of a bad situation, he must want all those goons in there with him.
“He could get shot at any time, they're shooting lasers everywhere in there! Besides, we've been at this for too long, this place may be pretty big for a casino, but it's not like it's all that far from one end to the other; the lieutenant should have reached us by now. Something must have gone wrong. The sooner we clear this place, the sooner we can go help the others.”
“Hmm...” Kroll didn't particularly want to risk the lives of his veteran stormtroopers at this point; he'd need everyone's help to make his plan a success, and they hadn't yet had enough of Hijiri and Sarah's training for him to feel confident that they could handle such a huge mob.
“You know she's right, sergeant.” Leon added, folding his arms as well. Did these two think that made them look intimidating or something?
Kroll sighed. “All in favour of helping Takanomiya?”
“Aye.” answered Priya, Leon, Brandon and Frank at once.
“... Uh, well... I guess...” Trevor added a moment later, after realising that no one else was about to object.
“Very reassuring, Dodson,” Kroll said drily, “we're all extremely impressed by your eagerness, I'm sure, but you're bad enough for friendly fire even without a cloud of smoke to help you perform even more dreadfully than normal, so why don't you just wait here for us?”
“Yes, sir!” Trevor sounded pleased with his new task, at least for a moment...
“Good luck holding them all off yourself, kid,” Frank gave the idiot a pat on the shoulder as he passed him on his way to the doors.
“Wait, what?”
Priya and Frank had entered the other room, with Leon right on their heels.
“There's a pretty good chance more of them will try and get away through here at some point, so do your best to take out as many as you can.” Kroll said, giving Trevor a bright smile.
Brandon had left as well, and now Kroll turned and strode through the slowly closing door himself.
“Huh? Wait! I changed my mind!” Trevor suddenly cried, dashing through after the others, only to shriek in terror, trip over and fall to the floor as numerous lasers and bullets were fired in his general direction.
He couldn't see a thing, but from somewhere nearby he heard Kroll's voice hissing quietly. “Nice work, imbecile, now they know we're in here and'll most likely be headed our way as we speak.”
Trevor whimpered.
“Let's find some cover. Dodson; you're forbidden from firing unless I say so, got that?”
“Y-yes, sir.” the coward moaned.
Following Kroll's lead, Trevor crawled off behind a table; the other four had spread out and gone somewhere else. The table wouldn't offer much in the way of protection against bullets and blaster-fire, but it was better than nothing, he supposed.
Kroll made a few whispered comments into his Communicator, then stood, leaning over the table and waiting. When the next gunshot occurred nearby he fired calmly, and someone screamed. Immediately, he ducked down, then spoke into the Communicator again, as more shots rang out.
Replies came from the device, then the 'sergeant' tapped Trevor on the shoulder and gestured to move on. They kept low, doing everything they could to avoid being discovered as they moved. Though their brief conversations were too quiet for him to hear much of what was being said, Trevor realised as they stopped behind a different table and Kroll popped up and took aim facing another direction, that they were organising things somehow so as to (hopefully) avoid shooting each other.
He wasn't sure how, exactly, but this squad did seem to work pretty well together. Kroll shot someone else, ducked, spoke, and they moved on again; it seemed like the plan was to keep moving in order to make sure the NSW didn't realise that their shots were those of the stormtroopers; it might come across as just a tad suspicious if someone in the same spot repeatedly kept 'accidentally' killing their gangsters. Up until this point, they had all been actively trying to avoid shooting towards the sources of the lasers and bullets, since they had clearly realised Hijiri was armed only with his sword, which meant they'd only have been killing their own allies by doing that, so as long as they never worked out which of the gunners were actually stormtroopers, the veterans could keep gunning them down with almost no risk.
Men and women continued to scream as they were slain by the Battle Rabbit somewhere in their midst, shot by the squad, and fired upon accidentally by each other as well. It couldn't last long, and so it didn't. As soon as they all realised they'd eventually lose at this rate, the mindless goons – in the absence of any competent leadership – decided that their best tactic would be to kill the 'troopers before they killed them. Unfortunately, since they didn't know where the EPD soldiers actually were, their only recourse was to shoot at anyone who fired.
Given that doing so meant having to fire their own weapon as well, which would in turn make them a target for their allies, who would then be shot by other gangsters, it didn't take them long to realise the folly of this idea. Of course, by then it was much too late.
***
“Feels good to be able to take this stupid thing off.” Hijiri remarked, tossing aside the ventilation mask and attempting to wipe as much of the soot-stained blood from his face as he could manage.
“Yeah, well, at least you had one.” Kroll coughed.
“Point taken. So, where to now, sir?” they had left the room behind them piled with corpses, only leaving after they were as certain as they could possibly be without waiting for the smoke to dissipate that there was no one left alive within. At least a few had likely escaped, but the ex-noble didn't seem concerned, so Hijiri didn't let it bother him either; those who fled would spread the word that Davion's squad held some formidable soldiers, after all, and so help get them recognised around the area... which was good, apparently.
“We have to make our way to the front entrance of this place; there's still no sign of Lieutenant Calrime. His group could be in trouble.” Priya told the Prime, who nodded.
“Any idea where that is?” the room they were in now was another hallway, but unlike the first, it was dotted with doorways all across its length... at least up until a couple dozen metres away, at which point it turned a corner, after which they could as yet tell nothing more about it.
“Not a clue.” answered Kroll. “We're just going to have to check them all. It's doubtful they got this far, given the lack of bodies and scorch-marks on the walls, but there could still be traps or enemy reinforcements behind any of these doors... not to mention valuables. Remember the plan, everyone; we need weapons, or at the very least expensive goods that can be converted into a lot of Omnilium.”
Frank – who had at some point removed his helmet, taken out his metal flask and started drinking – laughed at that. “Don't worry 'boss' none of us are gonna forget your KRAP anytime soon.”
Kroll scowled at the drunkard. The fake sergeant hadn't bothered to come up with an actual name for his plan – despite having different names for each of its component Phases – so Frank had taken it upon himself to come up with one in his stead. He eventually went with 'Kroll's Really Amazing Plan'... or KRAP, for short. Shockingly, the wannabe strategist didn't much like that name.
“Just get to work.” he snapped.
![[Image: Hijiri_Name_Sig.png]](https://image.ibb.co/k1H7Hd/Hijiri_Name_Sig.png)